New York City college student died fighting for Islamic State: U.S.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York City college student died last
November fighting for Islamic State in Syria, where he had
traveled earlier in the year with the assistance of an Arizona
man he met online, according to U.S. prosecutors.

The death of Samy Mohammed El-Goarany, who was 24 when he
traveled to Syria, was disclosed in papers filed by prosecutors
late on Monday in Manhattan federal court in a case against the
Arizona man, Ahmed Mohammed El Gammal.

The details came as prosecutors sought approval to introduce
evidence at the Dec. 5 trial of El Gammal, who is charged with
conspiring to provide material support to Islamic State by
helping El-Goarany travel so he could join the militant group.

The potential evidence includes a letter by El-Goarany that an
unidentified person via an instant messaging platform provided
one of El-Goarany's relatives after saying he had been killed
fighting in Syria.

In the letter, El-Goarany informed the relative that "if you're
reading this then know that I've been killed in battle and am now
with our Lord InshaAllah."

"We will win this war one day, this war between Iman (Belief) and
kufr (Disbelief) between Good and Evil," the letter said,
according to prosecutors. "And I will come back for you, with
Allah's permission I will come back for you."

El Gammal's lawyer declined comment. He has pleaded not guilty.

According to prosecutors, El-Goarany was a U.S. citizen who
attended college in Manhattan and who by 2014 began expressing
increased interest in militant forms of Islam.

El-Goarany first contacted El Gammal in August 2014 after
learning of online comments he posted supporting Islamic State,
prosecutors said.

They corresponded via encrypted messaging platforms, including
one El-Goarany recommended by noting former National Security
Agency contractor-turned-whistleblower Edward Snowden had used
it, prosecutors said.

They said El Gammal traveled to New York in October 2014 and met
El-Goarany. He then arranged for El-Goarany to get in touch with
an individual living in Turkey to help El-Goarany travel to join
Islamic State, prosecutors said.

El-Goarany, whose parents lived in Middletown, New York,
subsequently traveled from New York City to Istanbul in January
2015, and sometime in mid-February arrived in Syria, prosecutors
said.

After learning of El Gammal's August 2015 arrest, El-Goarany
posted a video on YouTube denying he had helped him and saying he
"came here out of my own will," prosecutors said.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Alan Crosby)

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